


Fluffy Mice

by Kalua



Series: Kingdom Hearts: Animal Shelter AU [1]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe - Animal Shelter, Dogs, Fancy Mice, Fluff, Gen, Pets, mild swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-12
Updated: 2019-03-12
Packaged: 2019-11-16 08:46:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18091178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kalua/pseuds/Kalua
Summary: Like almost every day, Ienzo decides to spend some day with the shelter's fancy mice, with Elrena keeping him company,





	Fluffy Mice

“You just said _what_ about my dog?”

Ienzo almost jumped when he heard Elrena’s voice. Part of him pitied the poor soul who’d thought it would be a good idea to insult her little Laurie, but then again, they should know that insulting someone’s dog was usually a bad idea. Even Aeleus might lose his temper when Charlie was involved.

Just in case, Ienzo decided to hang back until he heard the sound of footsteps very hurriedly running away. “And don’t dare come near her again!” He didn’t need to see Elrena to know that, if glares could kill, the man would be dead.

“Good morning.” Both Elrena and her dog immediately turned their heads to face Ienzo, but luckily, he’d long been deemed harmless. Once he was close enough, he crouched down to appropriately greet Laurie by stroking her head. The little dog didn’t seem nearly as phased by the man as her owner, already wagging her tail again, eager for pets.

Elrena scoffed. “Would be better if that jerk didn’t exist.”

“Maybe, but that’s not something you can legally change.” When he looked up, Elrena seemed like she contemplated ignoring the question of legality, sweetening up her morning a little. “Should we get going?”

“Ugh, fine.” She shot another deadly glare in the direction the man had run off to, before entering the shelter with Ienzo. Laurie had a few friends she loved playing with, so that’s where she’d wait until Elrena was done with her shift.

 

Since he was just a volunteer, Ienzo reached the mice quite a bit before Elrena, who had to change into work clothes first. Some of them were already sitting at the edge of their cage, just waiting to be let out; Nougat, the boldest one, even rose to her hind legs when Ienzo entered.

“You’ll take them while I clean up?” Elrena joined and closed the door.

“Of course.” Ienzo settled down just far enough from the cage door to give Elrena space for cleaning. The mice liked him, probably because he was there almost daily, and while some were still shy, most at least came out of the cage when he was around.

As always, he’d packed a book to read to the mice while they played around on him. It would help them become used to hearing human voices, and as long as Ienzo spoke quietly, it didn’t bother Elrena too much.

Nougat was the first out of the cage, but the rest of her group soon followed. Some kept their distance from Ienzo, while others climbed up to his shoulders hid inside of his sleeves. One tried getting into his backpack, but before it could, Ienzo gently pushed it away from the zipper.

Cleaning was done much faster than Ienzo would’ve liked. The rodents were only allowed to run free during specific times, cleaning being one of them. It made sense, the shelter employees needed some way to make sure nobody opened the door while they were out, or else one of them might slip out of the room. But even so, and although Ienzo had already memorized all the times the mice were allowed outside, he’d love to spend more time with them.

But when he tried to goad Nougat back into the cage, Elrena stopped him. “Nah, keep them a bit longer.” She stretched before putting the cleaning supplies away. “I’m not gonna go to the dogs until I stop being so pissed at that jerk. The mice don’t care as much.” Sighing, she just let herself fall down on the floor next to Ienzo. “Who does that bastard even think he is? Laurie’s off limits.”

Ienzo closed the book and put it away; he could see Elrena clenching her teeth, and the only thing stopping her from yelling was probably how much that would frighten the mice. Instead of replying, he just nodded and watched Nougat gently clean another mouse’s fur.

When the silence got too awkward, Elrena sighed again. “Geez kid, maybe you should spend some more time with humans instead of mice.”

Truth be told, Ienzo still found her fairly intimidating, but at least he wasn’t scared of her anymore. Still, he could feel himself blush a little at that remark. “It’s not that I spend too little time with other people, I’m just no good at smalltalk.”

“Hmm…” Elrena tapped her lips with a finger while she was thinking. “How’re your mice doing? You adopted some from here a while ago, right?”

Instantly, Ienzo’s focus shifted from Nougat to Elrena. That was a topic he could talk about for ages if he wasn’t interrupted. The cage layout, how his mice behaved, who the group’s leader seemed to be, who’d been fighting yesterday…

One of the mice, a new one named Moony, managed to climb up onto his head while he was talking, where Elrena offered him her own hand. Moony sniffed the it, then jumped over and ran up Elrena’s arm, where he curled up by her collarbone.

Eventually though, Elrena did interrupt Ienzo. “All right, all right. Maybe you should write a novel about it.” Gently, she grabbed the mouse on her shoulder and put it back on Ienzo’s head. “Help me get all of them back inside.”

“Oh, uh… Of course.” It was always a little confusing, returning to the present, regardless of whether it had been a book that distracted him or just a topic he loved. The mice already knew what was expected of them, so it didn’t take long until all of them were back home.

“Let me guess, you’re gonna stay here and read to them some more?” When Ienzo nodded, Elrena rolled her eyes. “Tell me once they start demanding their own books. Oh, and kid?” Ienzo looked down at the floor, avoiding Elrena’s eyes, but she just ruffled his hair. “Never change.”

When Ienzo pulled his book back out of the backpack, he could have sworn the mice were looking at him, just waiting for him to continue the story.

**Author's Note:**

> I originally wanted to start this AU with a different fic, but this one was more fun to edit, so... Have this instead. (And yep, I know that Ienzo isn't much younger than Elrena. Neither of us care, Elrena still calls him kid, and she's too ~~scary~~ intimidating to disagree with.)


End file.
